Meh, I don't think they like me. They'll hide when I go outside but when I sit inside they'll caw for a while and THEN come down to look for food. And if I sit by the window to see what the jays do they leave.

Well, Steller's and western scrub jays. I'd like to compare and contrast their biology, where they live, behavior etc.

I think it's been about...2 or so years since I went from 'Oh hey you're a bird' to 'Oh hey you're a -insert species here-'.

Reason I bring that up is because I have no idea if my neighborhood has ever had Steller's jays. Not sure when I noticed the scrub jays. Ever since I began feeding the squirrels, and I was yelling at the jays because they were taking the squirrel's peanuts. Now I'm yelling at the squirrels for taking the suet!

But just recently I've been hearing Steller's jays in the neighborhood. I've yet to see one but I've heard them just outside the house, and at an apartment complex down the street.

Just as well, I've seen Steller's jays at the zoo, but only recently I've noticed the scrub jays. Both breed at the zoo but I don't think I've ever seen both in the same place. I've only seen scrub jays where the ibises are, and just outside of bats. I've noticed the Steller's just about everywhere else. But in total, I've seen crows, scrub and Steller's jays and the one time raven all at the zoo. All I'm missing are some magpies and nutcrackers..and magpie jays...yeah not going to happen.

Started animal behavior 101....well 103b....arg... only because I've never had an animal behavior class so I thought it would be worth while (even if it is a 100 level class..) and I know the professor well enough to take yet another one of his classes.

Bad thing is that he knows me too and knows that I may know a thing or two about critters.

We watched a video on leaf cutter ants and wrote down questions we had or hypotheses. Then after the video he said that the ants aren't taking the leaves back home to eat them...and he pointed to me thinking that I knew the answer. Oddly enough I did. They were farming fungi to nom on. I don't know how I remembered that. Read something in probably an animal behavior article in something about ant farmers and how they cultivate fungi.

Way to go to pick ME out of the crowd instead of one of the NRT students! Oddly enough they're a minority, 103 is a super general bio series...I shall spend lab staring out the window at the bird feeders watching the jays in the feeders designed for chickadees and finches....it's weird seeing a bird that big stuff its beak into the feeder holes.

It took me 23 years but I finally played my first game! Didn't get too far because I had to leave for work right as we were about to end our first battle.

We realized that most of our characters lean towards being aligned with Nature, and that we worship the same god (except for one who worships Bahamut.) So we decided that with out powers combined, we can summon Captain Planet! That was later changed to 'Mother Nature' since we actually worship a goddess.And my character is a crow, that was raised by wolves, that can turn into a panther. And I got to tear someone's face off, but 'That One Guy' stole his soul ._. Soul is flavors damn it. Then most of my attacks missed the next group and nobody told me that 'That One Guy's' last spell left a reside on the floor that would do -3 damage to anyone who ends their turn there. Not too big of a deal just annoying since I was at full health So that battle ended with me initiating an opportunity of attack from the two baddies and they ended up missing so they flailed around their swords at me (at the moment a giant panther) and then I attacked which also missed, so we're just flailing at each other. 'That One Guy' also decided that this was a lot like Oblivion and was trying to use a bit of a strategy because he played that before. Our DM mentioned that previous game knowledge would be punished. So his punishment was that a rabbid was summoned to the battle field to attack him. it did so and 'That One Guy' had a plunger attached to his face for the remainder of the fight.

Earlier this month the Oregon Zoo lost their beloved giraffe Akeem due to age related issues and declining life quality due to said age (24 years old). And the picture they had to represent Akeem is a nice picture....but it's old. In the corner I spotted a marabou stork. I don't remember when the zoo had those but it has to be at least five years. I duno I just think it's nice to have recent pictures of animals who have since passed away.Most recent pictures I've seen of animals who have passed at the zoo are recent because they've only had the animal for less than a year (such as the case with the cheetah some years ago).

On another note I really wish I lived a bit closer to Tracy Aviary so I could volunteer there. Only facility that I know of that celebrates a condors birthday. That and I wanna play with the ground hornbills.

Stupid muskrat...I lost at least 4..maybe as much as 6 points on the ID exam today because I couldn't remember the muskrat's stupid species name. There was the specimen on the table to ID (along with a pocket gopher and a ground squirrel) and the muskrat appeared TWICE in the picture ID. Same damn slide. What the hell...how come wolverine couldn't be on there twice. That and I had a brain dump moment before class twice because some asshat in the classroom across from our was too stupid to shut the door and blamed us for being too noisy. Just shut your damn door then you won't have to hear us. Kicking the doorstop was what pushed me over. Not far enough to go yell at him mostly because he shut the door pretty fast.So there went all of the species name for the Oregon and Washington bats. And of course one table has SIX bats on it that I have to ID to genus! FFFF! At least I think I got their families right...there were only two of them and Vespertilionidae is stuck in my head for some reason.

The other brain dump came because my professor was a bit delayed in getting all the tables set up just right. So there goes all of the rodent species names. Well mostly mice and rats, and the pocket gopher, remembered some of the squirrels.

So I don't think I did too well. I can only imagine that the final exam is going to suck even worse.